


The Merpeople Work For The Bourgeoisie

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Merry Christmas Bitches, it's me im doing the work, its teen and up for language bc i cant not curse, me? starting another multichapter fic?, mermaid au, myself and x-lazart-x are doing god's work for this tag, pirates too, there's not a lot i can put in here without giving shit away, welcome to hell there is no god or updating schedule here, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2020-11-28 04:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20960489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Pirates, mermaids, the high seas, what more could you need?





	1. The Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pirates, mermaids, the high seas, what more could you need?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? starting a multichapter fic for a ship that has 40 something works in it? yeah basically. i am determined to get you all invested in this hell ship (haha that’s funny bc its about pirates haha) with me whether you like it or not on GOD  
anyways! see y’all on the flip side!

It all started with the stupid armband. Who even curses an armband, honestly?! What’s the point?! Off topic. Kenji was livid, and completely terrified, not that he’d ever admit to it out loud. He sighed, head falling back against the wood behind him. 

_ Everything is wrong, _ he thought, fingers sliding down from his shoulders and smoothing across his legs.

Legs. The smooth, pale skin felt so  _ wrong _ , so unfamiliar and foreign underneath his fingertips, and he felt a knot build up in his throat. He would  _ not _ cry. Not here. Not now. 

It all started with the stupid armband, and Kenji hated feeling like a fish out of water. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okiedokie my loves, here’s the sitch: this is the prologue. i have no clue how long this is gonna be, i am not even going to guess, its going to end when i feel like ending it, and i have my beta to thank for putting this idea in my head and feeding into my lack of self control. im coming for you, yankee bicth. haha jk......unless.   
anyways, as always, im thrilled you’re here, thrilled you chose to read my fic out of all of the options you could’ve chosen, and always always feel welcome to come yell at me for the pathetic length of this chapter on tumblr at bookishascanbe !!!   
xoxo <3 kitten


	2. Don't Let the Serpents Bite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curses, shipwrecks, and mixed emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i spent 20 minutes googling fish send help please, also, for reference:  
Keiji has a betta tail that starts out silvery and ombre's into gold with black at the ends  
Mori has a goldfish tail, but its red with black outlines  
and Kenji's is reminiscent of a koi fish, but with the dateko colors in spots  
also see the end for my crackhead beta's ideas

_ She smiles. From the safety of her lab she watches the ship go down in a swirl of waves, landing her curse exactly where it needs to be. Leaning back in her chair, she lets out a soft sigh. In just a few days, everything will begin.  _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Keiji-sama! You can’t just leave! Who’s going to rule in your place?!” Morisuke yelled after Keiji, darting forward to grab at his shoulder, wrist, arm, anywhere he could reach. 

Kenji watched from his corner, fingers twisting around themselves as he watched Keiji set down his bag, turn to Morisuke and cup his face in his slender fingers. Keiji murmured something to Morisuke, who winced and pulled away from his grasp, face twisting up in pain. 

Keiji sighed softly, and picked up his bag once more. “Mori, I can’t just stay here, wasting my life away on that throne when I know there’s more out there, when  _ he’s _ out there. I’ll leave Kenji in charge, but if he runs off or shirks from his duty, it’s up to you.”

Kenji watched Morisuke flick his tail, a flash of red and black, and then he heard his soft response, and felt his heart break a little. “You’d leave us, your friends, your kingdom, for a  _ human _ ? And a pirate, no less?”

Keiji paused. Kenji watched his tail sway, a flutter of silver, gold and black. “I’m leaving for myself, Mori. I’m leaving because I love him and I want to spend the rest of my time with him.” 

Morisuke sighed, and he tilted his head towards Kenji’s hiding spot. “Well, Prince, say your piece.”

Kenji jerked, and face burning, pushed out of the corner with a snap of his tail. “You’re leaving because you love him? What does love have to do with ruling a kingdom, Keiji-sama?”

Keiji turned and smiled a rare, soft smile. “It’s just Keiji now, Kenji-sama. You’re in charge. I’ll come back, but this isn’t where I’m needed right now. He needs me more, and I need him more.” 

Kenji shook his head. Love really was a strange thing, that it could make a king leave his kingdom. Keiji bowed his head to Kenji, adjusted his grip, and with a powerful thrust of his golden tail, he was out of the palace and swimming towards the surface. 

He felt Morisuke’s hand land on his shoulder, and he blinked slowly at Keiji’s fast fading form. With a shrug of his shoulder, he pushed Morisuke away, listlessly flicking his tail in the direction of the graveyard. 

“I’ll be back later,” he muttered when he heard Morisuke start to ask where he was going. He needed space, and the graveyard was the one place he could get it. 

Poking through sunken ships gave Kenji a sense of serenity and peace, especially after something like Keiji had pulled. As he drifted through the ships, ducking in and out of old ones and making his way to a new one, he ran over the events in his head. Keiji had disappeared for a few weeks. The kingdom went into a panic, search parties and rescue teams were sent out everywhere. Two weeks later, Keiji had reappeared, with a ship looming behind him, and had simply said, “I’ve fallen in love with a pirate and I’m relinquishing the throne.” 

The kingdom went absolutely insane. Kenji had laughed at first, thinking it was an elaborate joke. A merman? Falling in love with a  _ pirate _ ? As if. But Keiji never wavered, never broke. He floated in front of them, straight faced and serious. Gradually, they came to realize he wasn’t joking. Keiji was serious, and their king had fallen for a  _ human _ , and was leaving the kingdom to be with him. 

Kenji picked up a broken piece of pottery and flung it against the side of a ship. It shattered with a loud crash, and Kenji still felt empty. Keiji had been his best friend. They had been raised to rule the kingdom together, tutored together, and had been told of the horrors of the surface world together. The horrors of the humans who plundered and killed and took far more than they could ever need, the dirty, greedy, dangerous pirates. And Keiji came floating back into the palace, claimed to be  _ in love  _ with one of them, a pirate! And Kenji was just, what? Supposed to be okay with that? 

He dug his fingers into his hair and let out a frustrated yell, smacking his tail violently into the side of the newest addition to the graveyard. A flash of silver and a  _ clink _ caught his eyes and ears, and he let go of his hair to search out the disturbance. He found it in the shape of a silver sea serpent armband, and he turned it over in his fingers. 

It was well made, clearly expensive. There were little emeralds in its eyes, and Kenji found himself drawn in by its gaze.  _ Put me on,  _ it whispered.  _ Put me on.  _ Almost in a trance, he slid it over his left wrist and up his arm, fitting it around his bicep, where it curved prettily against his muscles. 

There was a crack of thunder and a flash of lightning, and the next thing Kenji knew, he was being thrown upwards, a burning pain ripping through his tail. He couldn’t find the breath to breathe before his head slammed into something hard and the world went dark. 

He came to his senses slowly. First he heard voices, but he couldn't recognize them. He couldn't hear Morisuke. Then he felt pain, and a sort of empty feeling, like something was missing. And then he opened his eyes, and everything was wrong. He was not underwater, the air was dry, and his- his heart stopped. His tail. _My tail_, he thought, sitting up quickly and looking down. His tail. _No._ _No, no, no, nonononono_, his mind screamed. 

  
"No. No, no, no,  _ nonononONONO _ ," he screamed. His tail, his beautiful, wonderful, trustworthy tail,  _ was gone.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly? i'm kinda excited for this au and just this in general uwu, i think i'm going to have fun writing it, and maybe it'll be my swan song :)  
also, the promised beta crack: "Akkashi, king of the merpeople or whatever, who has taken over for dead dad or something is like NAH fam I just fell in love this this hunk of a man and Imma go do my own thing for idk how long so BYE and all the designated mervollyplayers are like UM can you not and he's like too bad imma dip Kenji ur in charge now have fun time and Kenji's like fuck that I have my own shit to do fam and storms outta there to vent/collect objects for his lil people collection and evedently gets caught up in a storm or smt that lets him get a glimpse of the humans and hes like oh sick dude that looks way better than this running a kingdom bulshit and somewhere in there he sees someone throw cursed object(tm) over the boat or something and hes like oh sick what is it and then boom cured also rescued"  
this is copy-pasted and i just want to say i pissed myself laughing. i uwu you bicth  
see y'all next time!! xoxo <3 kitten  



	3. For the Halibut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What’s all the yelling about?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmmmmm it’s 2am, i wrote this so fast, but i’m glad to finally be moving the story along!! i feel good about it, and can’t wait to really get rolling !!

Kamasaki jerked awake from his dream to the sound of shrieking, followed by Koganegawa’s voice yelling something and pounding on his door. Tripping as he yanked on pants and tugged a shirt over his head, he threw the door open, a scowl on his face. The screaming only got louder. 

“What the hell is that?” he shouted over it, looking at Koganegawa cowering next to him, tsking as he pointed quickly towards the room they’d given to their overboard guest. 

He opened the door, half relieved when the shrieking stopped, but his stomach dropped when the boy looked up at him, tears flowing down his face and sobbing. 

“Alright, well,” he said, scrubbing a hand across his head. “First things first, can you understand me?”

Shakily, still crying, the boy nodded. Kamasaki felt something akin to relief begin to seep back in as he stepped completely into the room, closing the door and sitting down in front of the boy. 

“Great, that’s great. Can you speak? Other than wailing?” 

The boy tilted his head. “Yeah,” he said, voice rough from screaming, but somehow smooth and warm in Kamasaki’s ears. 

“Okay, good. Can you tell me how you washed up on driftwood in the middle of the ocean? And why you’re crying?”

The boy started shaking again, and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know, all I remember is-” he gasped and lifted his arm up quickly. A silver armband in the shape of a snake was settled against his bicep. “This! I put this on and the next thing I know, I’m on a ship with legs where my tail was.”

Kamasaki twitched his mouth. “That’s a good joke, implying that you’re a merman. Did your ship sink? Or were you thrown overboard?” 

The boy crossed his arms. “I am a merman. I put on this armband I found in a shipwreck, and then my tail hurt, and I woke up here.”

Kamasaki sighed, and leaned back on his palms. “Right, so you’re a merman who’s been cursed by a magical armband you found in a shipwreck. Are you sure you aren’t a thief?”

The boy looked completely disgusted. “I’m royalty, you jackass, I would never steal,” under his breath he added, “from living people.”

Kamasaki huffed. “Prove it.”

“What the fuck do you want me to do without my tail? It’s not like,” he paused, eyes turning up towards the ceiling. “Well, actually, are we somewhere I can be in the water next to the ship? Or touch it?”

Kamasaki nodded, and stood up. “C’mon, we’re docked on an island, you can stand on the shore.”

“Oh,” the boy whispered, slowly stretching his long legs out. “Do you, um, think you could help me? I’ve never stood before.”

Kamasaki held his hand out, pulling the boy up slowly, watching with mild amusement as he wobbled dramatically. “Really laying it on thick, aren’t you?”

“I’m not joking around,” he snapped, and then fell into Kamasaki’s side when his ankle gave a little and he lost his balance. 

Kamasaki sighed and got his hands around the boy’s thighs and lifted. “Legs around my waist, arms around my neck, it’s faster to carry you,” he muttered, securing one arm around his back and the other under his ass. “What’s your name, anyways?”

“Futakuchi Kenji, Crown Prince of the Southern Sea. Well, king now, since Akaashi left,” he said, voice heavier towards the end. 

Kamasaki hummed, bouncing Futakuchi a little higher and kicking the door open. “Quite a title. Why’s a king running off and getting cursed?” 

Futakuchi sniffed. “I didn’t mean to. Mori’s gonna be furious,” he whined, laying his head on Kamasaki’s shoulder as he walked them across the ship and towards the gangplank. 

Kamasaki shook his head at Obara’s raised eyebrow. “I’m sure if you explain what happened this Mori person won’t be too upset.” 

Futakuchi sighed, tucking his forehead against Kamasaki’s neck. “I don’t know, but I don’t think he’d ever let it go. Would you set me down knee-deep in the water, uhhhh,” he pulled his face away to look at Kamasaki. 

Kamasaki smirked. “Kamasaki Yasushi, Dread Pirate Captain of the Iron Sails.” 

Futakuchi’s eyes went so wide, they almost popped out of his head. “ _ Pirate _ ?!” 

“Mhm. We’re not all blood and guts and gold. Some of us pirate to survive. Is here good?” 

Futakuchi sighed through his nose, like he’d heard a version of the “not all pirates are bad” speech before, and looked at where Kamasaki was standing. “Yeah, here’s good. Hold me up, please?” 

Kamasaki set Futakuchi’s wobbly legs down, and let him rest his hands on his chest as he tried to keep his balance. “Oh,” Futakuchi whispered, “it’s easier to keep my balance in the water, that’s good. Sorry if I drown any of your crew.” 

“Do what?!” Kamasaki yelped, and was immediately overpowered by the sudden vibrating note that came out of Futakuchi’s mouth. 

A quick melody flooded the air around the two of them, and Kamasaki felt like the world narrowed down to him and Futakuchi, for the 3 seconds Futakuchi sang. He didn’t want him to stop, but once he did, Kamasaki understood. 

“So sirens and mermaids are the same?” 

Futakuchi shook his head. “I’m half siren, half mermaid. Nobody’s supposed to know, really. I guess that’s why Mori never let me sing much as a kid. I didn’t sing long enough to make your crew or you kill yourselves or anything, I don’t really think I’m even capable of that, and I have to be in water to do it.” 

Kamasaki nodded, and obediently picked Futakuchi back up when he wrapped his arms around Kamasaki’s neck. “So, merpeople are real, and Moniwa wasn’t drunk,” he muttered, and caught Obara’s eye from where he stood against the ship’s rail, Koganegawa and a couple of the others pressed next to him. 

“Obara, wake up Aone, he needs to meet our guest.” he came up the gangplank, shifting Futakuchi against his chest, twitching a bit when Futakuchi’s cold nose buried into his neck. “Men, this is Futakuchi Kenji, a cursed merman, as impossible as it sounds. He’s our guest till the next port.” 

The pirates all saluted and Kamasaki bounced Futakuchi, who sat up and nodded his head at them. “Please take care of me,” he said, voice soft, immediately returning his face to Kamsaki’s neck. 

“We’ll stop at Karasuno’s port and talk to Kiyoko-san, see what she has to say about breaking this curse. For now, you’ll help out around the ship, learn to walk.” 

Kamasaki stopped outside the room Futakuchi’d been in, and paused with his hand on the handle when Futakuchi tightened his grip. “I don’t like being alone.” 

Kamasaki sighed. “Alright, you can stay with me then, and Obara can have his room back. Ah, Aone, good. Come with us, please.” 

Aone nodded, and followed Kamasaki to the captain’s quarters, closing the door softly behind them. Kamasaki dumped Futakuchi on the bed and sat at a chair, gesturing for Aone to sit as well. 

“You’re our resident magic user. Is his story valid? Can a curse make a merman human?” 

Aone looked over Futakuchi, who was trying to fold his legs into a comfortable position, and nodded at Kamasaki. 

Kamsaki leaned back. “Well, fuck. Can you break the curse?” 

Aone shook his head without hesitation. “Magic’s not advanced enough.” 

Kamsaki sighed, glancing at Futakuchi falling over when he yelped quietly. “Kiyoko-san’s our only hope then,” he turned back to Aone. “Tell the others to keep going with watches. I’m going back to sleep for a few hours, and I’m gonna drag His Majesty over here to sleep as well. He’s done a lot more than he’s used to, I’m sure.” 

Aone bowed and left. Futakuchi squawked at him. “I resent that! I practically ran the kingdom for a month while Akaashi was missing.” 

“Yeah but you’ve never been human. C’mon, rest,” Kamasaki said, flopping onto his bed and sliding under the blankets. 

“Next to you?” Futakuchi asked. 

“If you want. You’re welcome to sleep on the floor or by yourself.” 

Futakuchi quickly scrambled under the blankets and tucked himself neatly against Kamasaki’s side. “Having legs is weird. I don’t know if I like it.” 

Kamasaki patted his shoulder gently, tucking his arm under him as comfortably as possible. “Hopefully you don’t have to get used to it, and Kiyoko-san can help.” 

Futakuchi hummed, and a few moments later his breathing deepened and Kamasaki snorted softly at how fast he’d fallen asleep, but was only a few minutes behind him. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter title was brought to you by 50% Off on youtube (totally watch it it’s fuckin hilarious)   
this sat blank in my notes for so long 😬 sorry guys, its here now!!   
see ya next time!   
xoxo <3 kitten


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